Episode 13 | Checks for Understanding | The Edu20/20 Podcast

In this episode of The Edu20/20 Podcast, we’re continuing the conversation on lesson planning and zooming in on one of the most overlooked (but critical) parts: checks for understanding.

The reality is kids can be doing all the things and still not learning anything.

We get into what it actually looks like to monitor learning in real time, how to check for comprehension (not just completion), and how to do it without spending your entire life grading papers.

You'll hear us talk about lap logs, sticky notes, turn-and-talks, tech struggles, and how to make everything doable in an actual classroom with actual kids.

Chapters:
0:00 Why we’re talking about lesson checks (and why it matters)
3:10 The problem with monitoring for completion instead of learning
5:28 Simple systems that actually save you time (lap logs + quick checks)
8:27 Feedback, trends, and why you don’t need to check everything
12:06 What this looks like in K–2 (yes, even without writing)
13:28 The reality of tech in the classroom (and where it falls short)
17:07 The biggest mistake we see in classrooms

#Edu2020 #LessonPlanning #InstructionalCoaching #TeachingStrategies #Education

https://www.edutwentytwenty.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Welcome back to the Edu2020 podcast. My name is Courtney. And I'm Shannon. And we are owners of Edu2020. We are an organization that helps support educators simplifying education, basically, making it simple because we overcomplicate a lot in education. And we talk about all the things on this podcast. We also have another podcast that's after hours. You want to check that out too. But we're glad you joined us today because today we're going to keep talking a little bit more about lesson planning. And, you know, it's a touchy subject, but um somebody's got to talk about it. So here we are, you know, and if you haven't seen our last episode, we talked about the big four things that you need to do when you are planning. And so we're going to kind of take a deeper dive a little bit further into one of those elements today. I'm really excited.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Me too. So we talked about in the last episode that when you're lesson planning, to make it efficient but really effective, you want to look for your standards and objectives. You want to identify where you're going to check for understanding those lesson checks, what activities are essential that are going to get students there. And then how are you going to engage them and let them do the thinking and learning? So we're going to branch out and focus in on one of those elements today. We're going to talk about lesson checks and checks for understanding. Because picture this in your head, Courtney. If you have 80 students per day, and you spend 60 seconds per student analyzing a work product from the lesson, you just spent two class periods, uh two planning periods just looking at lesson checks for understanding. But they're critical. You have to do it. So how do we make it manageable? What is the importance? Where should we do it? Because that statistic scared me a little bit when I one year I was faced with 153 freshmen. Oh, yeah, it was a fun year. It was a fun year.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

You live to tell the story. I did, I did. Yeah, that's it's it's daunting sometimes because the whole point of teaching is to make sure kids have learned. And a lot of times we focus so much on the teaching side, we forget to check if they learned. And in a lot of times the lessons become more about assigning them things to do and checking off a box, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

But we've got to shift our thinking and because the kids are doing something, but the whole point of them doing something is to practice or process the information you want them to learn. And so I got into the bad habit a lot of times, and some of y'all, I know y'all empathize with me on this, is that a lot of times I was monitoring, which means I was moving around the room and my kids were doing work, but a lot of times I was monitoring for completion, right? Not comprehension. Like I wasn't actually monitoring were they learning, I was just making sure they were staying on task.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

And so, like, that's one of the issues.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Definitely a habit to get into.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Yeah, I used to run into. And then like the sheer volume of work to look at, it's so much. So, how do we make this a more efficient process? How do we make this easier for teachers? And what are some things we can use as checks to make things move a little bit faster for teachers? Because that's daunting.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

It is very daunting. Um, so I would say one of the first places to start, um, on a the previous episode, we talked about what activities are essential and how are we going to engage students in that? I found that it was most effective for me to try to do one thing that got to all of those. So, for example, if there was a really important concept that students needed to pause and process, embedding just a quick conversation, like literally go around your table, number one, what's your answer? Number two, number three, number four, or you can do that with partners. But that freed me up so that I could walk around and listen to their answers. Um, because like you said, I was more checking on completion of a task, but sometimes I could just hear it. Um instead of just making sure they were on task, it's listening for the answer. So finding a and then I was also getting my student engagement in. So that was helping me do a lot of things at once. But I I really tried to plan to do it around those essential activities.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Well, and you made a good point too. If I'm always at the front of the room doing all the talking, I never know if my students know. And so at some point, you've got to turn your lesson over to them for them to do something. And even if they are talking, there is a way to listen. And I mean, I've seen you do this before with a checklist. Can you tell them a little bit about that real quick? Oh, the lap log? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Yeah. So uh I think um a social media post, I actually have a poster of this somewhere, but um, one year I learned something called a lap log where you literally just have a class list. It looks like the old timey grade plan book. Uh it was just a grid. But I would just write the date and maybe what I was checking. So for example, did could students identify the correct character traits? And I walked around and I just did a quick check mark or just a slash line or an X, whether they partially or didn't get it. Um, and I might not could do anything with the information that day, but as I was picking up data, I could look at trends during the week and see who was getting the concepts in the lessons and who wasn't getting it. And look at that.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

Like even looking at the lap log that that helps you to buy back some time rather than looking at every piece of student work.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Yeah, because it's physically, it's physically impossible.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

And a lot of times we wait until the end of the lesson to check for understanding because we should have a lesson check, right? Sure. But those things can happen throughout the lesson. I feel like we a lot of times will, I don't know if it's because of evaluation rubrics or because of, you know, certain mandates or expectations. A lot of times we wait till the end. But if you are monitoring throughout the lesson and addressing those misconceptions in the moment, that's going to save you a lot of time on the back end. And I think I learned a lot about this during COVID. Um, we did a lot of in school districts, there was a lot of let's print these like packets for students to do, like let's pass them out or let the parents do it at home with kids and and then they can just turn them in. But no one was ever giving students feedback or looking at it. So basically it just became another piece of busy work for students. And really what teaching is, it's not just the deliver of information, right? It's actually seeing what they picked up and responding to what the kids did or did not get and giving feedback. Feedback is where the teaching really happens. And so often if we're only checking for completion or we're only checking at the end of the lesson, we don't get a chance to give feedback.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

You know, and so that's what's really tricky is that we've got to make sure we're leveraging all of the time in the class period so we're not adding more work to ourselves outside of the class period.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

That's true. Um, and also I think there's a fine balance of we can't add a bunch of things to lesson planning. So I think it's identifying in the, you know, when you're lesson planning, where is the most important place or two that I check? But I also think that it's practicing the skill. So it's a good challenge. It was a good challenge for myself. It would be a good challenge if you, if teachers, if you want to challenge yourselves, where in this lesson can I just check to see if if they're getting it, what student answers are? Do I need to redirect? Do I need to reteach? Um, whether it's in a conversation, but some other quick ways I have found that, say in social studies, for example, if I have students move a sticky note under if I ask a question and I have them move their sticky notes underneath it and then turn and talk, I can peruse the perimeter of the room or get through the the um seats and look and see where their sticky notes are and at a quick glance see who's getting it and who who missed it.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Yeah, I'm so glad you brought up sticky notes. Some districts where we work in, they actually call us the sticky note girls because we use sticky notes for everything. But one of our teammates, Allie, she had a brilliant idea of having kids land their, you know, an answer to a question on a sticky note. And what she used to do is she would pick up all the ones that were correct in her right hand and then all the ones that were incorrect in her left hand. And already she had things she had the students sorted before she left the classroom that day. Like, how easy is that and and efficient to where she doesn't have to go because I was that person. One year um I looked at every student's work every day. I'm not lying. Like I would not lie about that. Um, what I ended up having is like the last class period of the day was my planning, and that's a weird time. Yeah. Most of my career, I had like the first class of the day, the last class of the day, which was terrible. My least favorite was the last class of the day, but I was able to look at student work. And so I went through every kid's answer and I was able to give them feedback and they thrived on that. And so a lot of times, because I I know that there's listeners out there, there's always some naysayers out there. I've been that person before, um, who are like, well, I can't even get them to write something on the sticky note. How? I can't even get them to write their name on the paper. If you start giving them feedback and using their student work in class and showing them that you're actually looking at it, because they know they know we're not looking, they know we're file 13 and half of the work that they turn in. And then when they ask us for fits for a grade, we're like, absolutely. They know. Yeah. And um, and so I took that whole 45 minutes at the end of the day for this entire year and I gave them feedback, which was absolutely insane and completely we don't expect that. Yes. I almost died that year. No. Um, but we've got to simplify this. And and if we never check for understanding, we don't know if the kids know.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Can you give us an example of how you use student work to give them feedback?

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Absolutely. Um, so once I learned from that experience that I didn't have time to look at every student work, every piece of student work every day. Uh, you know, in technology, I'm sure on my age now, technology became more prevalent. Uh, and so I would use online things like on Google Classroom or on NearPod where students would just put their exit ticket on there. Um, I would be able to just kind of, like you said, peruse uh the different student answers and just kind of see what the trends were. So I would look and just see it. Sometimes I would pick six, like six kids. I would just pick six of them and see, okay, what are the common misconceptions here? Pick six. It was just something so simple. So I was able to identify trends to address um whole group instead of, and then sometimes I would individualize, but again, that was few and far between because it's not realistic. Like everyone's like, oh, make your groups every day. Yeah, never got time for that. Okay, let's be real. Um, and so I would do a pick six and I would look for the big trends that kids were missing. And the next class period, I would open up the day with two student answers that usually revealed the trend because a lot of kids we like to use exemplars, but some kids don't know that it's good because it's not compared to a weaker answer. So I love to put the strong answer next to the weak answer and have kids identify that. Was the warm-up, that was the bell ringer, which student answer was stronger and why? And then they had to really reflect and think, oh, that like that quality of evidence wasn't that good. And they were having really great conversations, but that's where the misconception addressing happened was they were actually addressing it with each other instead of me being like, okay, so look at the work, like let them do it. And then that teaches them how to self-assess their own work so they can self-correct. That's the whole hope is that the something crazy here.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Okay, you wild. They were actually developing their own criteria for what made a good response. You said a no-no. Well, there are two other things that I'm gonna talk about specifically with criteria, and one of them criteria checks. Sorry, checks. It's good. Less than checks. We're not going there yet, are we, Shannon? No. Not ready. This is 50, y'all. Sorry. Um, no, um, I've recently been working with some K2 teachers and they rightfully so. They have jewels in their crown. Right. They do teachers. They're getting jewels in their crowns for the work that they do. But it's really challenging, specifically with um, let's say, social studies or science, for example, when those are the least amount a lot of times that they have to teach those subjects. Yeah. How do they do quick checks for understanding when the kids can't write? Um, and so we've been problem solving some ways, and these teachers are brilliant. They're like, you can just have on a sticky note and ask a question, and the students can do their invented spellings, but it's just writing their answer down on a sticky note or drawing a picture. Yes. Um, and we've had great success with that. Uh, for example, in one lesson, the students were uh, why are some reasons that people use maps? And the students were drawing pictures, and some of it was weather, and some of it was showing a building to get to another building, and it was brilliant. Um, and then some of them um are using the whisper your answer in your bubble and then turn and whisper it to your partner, your peanut butter jelly partner. And that's a quick way for students to do the thinking first, and then they're walking around listening to conversations, and it's just been really brilliant. But the second one that I want to talk about, um, and I'm I'm gonna tee this over to you. Um, we have seen a lot with Chromebooks in the classroom. And I know people have lots of different feelings. We find every end of the spectrum, and whatever you believe about technology in the classroom, that's what you believe.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

Um I had a visceral reaction, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

You did. Um, because we have been able to see some things, the challenges. What are some of the challenges with technology and checks for understanding?

SPEAKER_01 13:30

The hardest thing, y'all, is kids are multitaskers and they're smart. Yeah. So one of the hardest things is them getting off task. You can do 20 things at one time on a computer. Um, and we've seen this with adults. Like if you give kids an opportunity to opt out, they're going to take it. If you give adults an opportunity to opt out, they're going to take it. And so it's very, very hard to monitor understanding and it's very, very easy for kids to hide behind a screen. Um, I know personally, my middle schooler, she is on a Chromebook from 7:30 to 2:30. And it a lot of times as a teacher, it's hard for me to get around and look at it. Um, it's hard for me to see the tiny type. And then they turn the darkness down all the way, and you're like, I can't read it. Um, but we've even seen, like, we've done kind of field tests ourselves on this, just giving adults paper versus computers. And it's something about me being able to see what they're writing and be able to give feedback in the moment. It's a lot easier. Now, again, that that other I use technology, like I use the near pod for kids to turn their answer. I use the Google Classroom because that was really good for me. That was easier for sure. Yeah, it was really easy for me to access that student work and not take it with me in my tote bag everywhere. Right. But in the lesson, um, I have just found that it's it's more difficult to monitor understanding ongoing.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

But I know that parents also, like you've got two sides. Parents need to be able to see that work too.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

I think the something that we've seen successful is just be really intentional. And I've seen where some teachers will have their jot their answer down first, and then after they turn and discuss, they land it um in a in a Google Doc or digitally. Now, some people might feel that that's extra work. You can embed those turn and talks and just have the discussions where each student has to do the thinking and just can't hide. It's it's thinking about how do we eliminate the opt-outs. Um, I think it's also challenging if they are working digitally because they can share answers. And we all know the challenges, but it's really knowing what do I have to check in this lesson. Sometimes if they're just typing and they're just practicing the content, that's great. But if it's a really important lesson check, like you've got to know where your students are at with this concept, I think that's when just to be strategic in how you're assessing their learning.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

And even if you do land it on a Chromebook, like having them turn and talk, we've got to prepare students to be listeners. Um, because so so I mean, there's so many adults in the world right now that just wait for their turn to talk instead of being listeners. Yeah. And having that turn and talk opportunity, even if they land it on the Chromebook, I've I can hear what they're saying and they are actually processing and practicing, and you like to call it what rehearsing their thinking. Rehearsing their thinking um before they land it. So there's different ways to check, y'all. It's just be very intentional because kids get real tired of doing things for the sake of of doing them, busy work. If you're gonna have them write something down or gonna have them talk about it, make it purposeful, make it one of those essential activities and and make sure you're looking to see did they actually learn what I wanted them to learn?

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Yeah. Um, I heard on another video, and I wish I knew the original creator. You know, we watch so many videos. I don't know who originated this video. By Doom Scroll, she means I like to research on TikTok. Yeah, it's fine. Um, I'm very proud of it. Um, I wish I could find the original creator. So if anybody knows, tag them in our comments that we know. But um, there was one educator who said she she tasked, not asked when she learned better. Like give them a task to do instead of just asking questions for checks for understanding because you are the queen of drawing diagrams in a room when we go into observe instruction. Um, and you're great about drawing the seats. And what do you find in your diagrams?

SPEAKER_01 17:05

I find that the I like to make marks of of how many seats are in the room, and then I like to put dots where kids have responded to content questions. And so often we see out of 25 kids in the classroom, only four have responded in 20 minutes. And so if we're not being intentional about checking for understanding, we're not giving kids a chance to think about their their content, to process their content.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

Yeah. And sometimes I don't feel like it's the fault, our fault as educators, when we're feeling we feel so controlled, and we've said it before the calendar and the curriculum are controlling you. You've got to get through these lessons and stay on pace. And there's so much pressure. So I think it just comes back down to taking a breath and in your lesson planning being super intentional, where it is one place that I really need to make sure that kids are getting it. Absolutely. Um, and it just takes practice. I found for me, it took uh I mean, I might have been a little slower, but it took me several years to get confident in that.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

We tell people all the time that the only reason why we stand before them to lead PD is because we did everything wrong and then figured it out later. Sorry, former students. My first class is in therapy, uh, hopefully by now. But um, we don't know it all. We're still finding it out as we go out into these education streets. We are there in the trenches with you, finding things out and learning things from you every day. So, like if you have good ideas for checks for understanding that we didn't mention today, drop them in the comments below. We'd love to hear them uh and continue to follow us on social media. I know we we're running out of time for this episode, but our social media is at edu, it's edu, and then the words 2020. Um, you can follow us on all social media platforms and of course check out those after hours podcasts because that's where things get wild. Um, but hopefully you've gotten at least one little nugget today about monitoring understanding in the classroom and those lesson checks, because those are so critical. We have to know what kids have learned, because that's the whole point to us teaching. So hopefully we'll see you next time and thank you for joining us today.